Surviving the Workday

Dear Ms. Theologian,

My apologies if you’ve covered this before, but my questions concern cover letters and writing samples.

How long should they be?  What are some do’s and don’t to be aware of?

And while I’m thinking about it, what about requested writing samples?  Should they be specifically tailored for the job to which you are applying, or should they be generally representative of your best work, regardless of topic or content?

-Applying for a Job

 Dear Applying:

Let’s take the writing sample question first, which seems easiest.

You should choose from your portfolio or create from scratch a writing sample that is similar to the type of writing that the job expects in terms of content, format, and length. Did I just hear you groan? Ms. Theologian feels your pain.

Several years ago, Ms. Theologian was in the position of evaluating writing samples for writing positions. You would be surprised at the variety of samples people sent. Most of them were completely inappropriate. What does Ms. Theologian mean by that? They weren’t similar in any way to the type of writing required in the job, and it was difficult to see if the writer had the abilities to do the work. You want the person reviewing your sample to say, “Wow, here’s someone who has experience with this sort of writing and does it well,” and not, “What the hell is this?” Ms. Theologian said, “What the hell…” quite a bit in that job.

Funny story. In th same job, Ms. Theologian had a colleague who was responsible for evaluating graphic design samples, and he had exactly the same problem. Graphic designers submitted everything and anything, including some nice naked people for a job designing children’s books, which gave everyone a laugh. They were nice naked people as naked people go, but particularly inappropriate.

Ms. Theologian wishes you well with your samples.

-Ms. Theologian

 P.S. If you’d like to write to Ms. Theologian, send an email to ms dot theologian at gmail dot com.